Milakatong La or Menlakathong La is a historic mountain pass along the trade route between

Tawang Tawang is a town and administrative headquarter of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. The town was once the capital of the Tawang Tract, which is now divided into the Tawang district and the West Kameng district. Tawang c ...

in India's

Arunachal Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh (, ) is a state in Northeastern India. It was formed from the erstwhile North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) region, and became a state on 20 February 1987. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south. It shares int ...

and Tsona Dzong in Tibet's Shannan province via the valley of Tsona Chu.

Location

The

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The t ...

– Sherriff expedition to Tibet identified the location of Milakatong La at , at the top of a branch valley of the Tsona Chu valley, leading down to the

Tsechu A tshechu ( dz, ཚེས་བཅུ།, literally "day ten") is any of the annual religious Bhutanese festivals held in each district or dzongkhag of Bhutan on the tenth day of a month of the lunar Tibetan calendar. The month depends on the pla ...

village. Following the valley upstream along Tsona Chu leads one to Tsona Dzong. Following it downstream leads one to the

Tawang Chu Tawang Chu is the main river of the Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh, India. The entire district may be regarded as the basin of the Tawang Chu river. In addition, two south-flowing rivers from Tibet, viz., Tsona Chu and Nyamjang Chu, join ...

river. Other sources suggest a location near the 'Bum La' pass of Ludlow-Sherriff (), described as being between "

Tulung La __NOTOC__ Tulung La () is a border pass between the Tsona County in the Tibet region of China and India's Tawang district in Arunachal Pradesh. It is in the eastern part of the two districts, close to the Gori Chen cluster of mountains, on a wa ...

and the Bhutan border". The McMahon Line map of 1914 places the Indo-Tibetan border along the mountain range on this axis (labelled "Menlakathong La range"): This pass also leads to another branch valley of the Tsona Chu valley, which lies north of the border. Both the passes were likely used for trade between Tawang and Tsona Dzong. This perhaps explains the confusion among sources.

Trade

According to F. M. Bailey, there were two trade routes between Tawang and Tsona Dzong, one via Milakatong La and other via the

Nyamjang Chu Nyamjang Chu, or Nyashang Chu () is a cross-border perennial river that originates in the Shannan Prefecture of Tibet and flows into the Arunachal Pradesh state of India, joining the Tawang Chu river just before it enters Bhutan. The Nyamjang C ...

valley. On each of these roads, a ''Tsukang'' (''Chukang'') or a customs house was placed by the Tibetans and a tax of 10 per cent was collected on all merchandise brought from Tawang. However, there was no tax on articles carried from Tsona Dzong to Tawang.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* {{Mountain passes of India Mountain passes of Arunachal Pradesh

Location

Trade

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography